RICHMOND, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW)- Eastern Kentucky’s basketball teams no longer have to wait to play in their home arena after the reopening of Alumni Coliseum, also known as Baptist Health Arena. On Thursday, Head Coach A.W. Hamilton’s men’s basketball team beat North Florida as they played in their home for the first time since March 2023. Women’s basketball plays its first game in the new-look arena on Saturday versus North Alabama at 1 p.m. That game is one of two games in a double header as the EKU men play again at home versus Jacksonville at 4 p.m. “It feels good to be at home,” said Hamilton. “Next year when we come in here and it’s completed it’s going to be as good as it gets.” Former Colonels, old and young, also gave their takes on the renovations. Michael Moreno, who graduated from EKU last year, says he’s excited for the current and future Colonels who get to have the new facilities at their disposal. “If you look at the state of our facility it’s very hard to find that in the state of college athletics,” said Moreno. “We’re trying to compete as far as facilities go and this puts us in a great tier.” Craig Turner played for Eastern in the 1970s for four years and has lived in Lexington since 1975. He says he felt happy to see the character of Alumni Coliseum remain the “Its got a good look to it,” said Turner. “Hopefully it helps us play better too. The beam ceiling is no unique. They did a good job working around it.” Categories: Featured, More Sports, Sports Tags: Alumni Coliseum, ASUN, Basketball, Colonels, EKU, renovations